Nokia launches beta of mobile social networking site

Just over two weeks after buying media sharing site Twango Inc., Nokia Corp. launched a closed beta of a new mobile social networking site.

Mosh, short for Mobile Sharing, lets anyone upload and share video, images, ringtones, games and mobile applications from their mobile phones. The site has many features of other social networking sites, including the ability to tag and share content with others and create collections of content.

The site is free to use and isn't limited to Nokia phones owners. Anyone with a phone that has a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or standard browser can view the site from their phone. However, Nokia phone users can download an application that offers them quick access to the Mosh site.

The site is also accessible from a computer. Users can download content to their PCs and then transfer the content to their phones, in order to avoid potentially costly mobile data charges associated with downloading content to mobile phones.

In order to upload content, a user must first register, although anyone can view the content. Registered users can upload individual items with a maximum size of 100M bytes. Nokia didn't specify the monthly upload quota but said it is generous and "higher than any user will probably need."

Mosh sounds similar to the offering from Twango, a company Nokia announced it acquired on July 24. Twango is a free service that lets users store and share photos, videos and other media. Users can upload files to Twango from a variety of devices, including phones, and anyone can access files without having to sign in.

Nokia officials were not immediately available to comment on details about the site.

For now, Mosh is a closed beta, meaning that only approved users can sign up and start using the site. However, the Forum Nokia site offers community members a password to gain entry to the site. Forum Nokia is a community for Nokia mobile application developers.

Mosh joins several other services Nokia has launched that are available to a wide audience, not just Nokia phone owners. For example, its Smart2Go mapping software is available to certain Nokia, Windows Mobile and Linux mobile devices. WidSets is another Nokia offering available to most Java-enabled phone users. It lets users put widgets on their mobile phones.

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